Modern vehicles are equipped with sophisticated electronic devices such as multimedia entertainment systems, GPS navigation systems, internet access devices, and the like. This invention is directed to a display method and apparatus for displaying traffic information which is typically implemented in such a vehicle electronic device, although the present invention is not limited to the automobile use. This invention can also be applied to a hand-held navigation system, remote terminal, PDA (personal digital assistant), etc. However, for the convenience of explanation, the present invention will be described with respect to a vehicle navigation system.
When driving an automobile, a user wants to reach the destination quickly and smoothly. However, because of various traffic incidents, such as traffic jams, accidents, construction, etc., it is sometimes difficult to enjoy smooth driving to the destination. Thus, when driving an automobile to the destination guided by a vehicle navigation system, a user wants to know whether there are any traffic incidents that may affect his/her travel to the destination. If it is possible to know such a traffic incident and its degree of seriousness in advance, the user can change the route or spend a time at a convenient place to avoid the traffic incident.
Today, there is a radio service which provides traffic information to members through a wireless transmission or a telephone network. If a user is a member of such a service, the user is able to receive the ongoing traffic information through the vehicle navigation system, a portable navigation device, or the like, having a radio transmitter or an Internet access capability. For example, such traffic information (depicted by traffic incident icons) will be combined with a map image of an area where the user is currently located.
Especially, when receiving such information by the vehicle navigation system and displaying the traffic information on the navigation screen, it is important that the driver should not be distracted from the driving by paying attention to the display. To maintain the safe driving, it is necessary that the driver can easily and quickly grasp the important traffic information at a glance. In other words, the traffic information which will not affect the user's travel to the destination should not be treated in the same manner as the more important traffic information. Accordingly, there is a need of evaluating the traffic information in combination with the specific route to the destination particular to a user.
Thus, the user needs the traffic incident information only related to the route to the destination in order to select specific incidents to be avoided and to obtain a new guided route to the destination. Operations for selecting the incidents should be simple in order to maintain the safe driving. However, frequently, in a conventional navigation system, the user can not grasp enough information regarding the traffic incidents and can not easily select which incidents should be avoided on the route.
Therefore, in the navigation system, there is a need for more sophisticated display method and apparatus for displaying traffic information. There is a need of a new navigation system which enables the user to efficiently and easily grasp the traffic incidents information on the calculated route to the destination, select the traffic incidents to be avoided, and obtain a new optimum route to the destination which is not affected by the traffic incidents specified by the user.